“I came back to farming as part of a larger journey in food,” says Kurt Henricks, Director of Strategic Development for Columbia County NY’s Stewardship Farms. “I like to focus on brix, soil, plant breeding and other things that affect taste.”
“I grew up on my mother’s Midwestern, French and German cooking, my neighbors’ Italian-American cooking and then was Lead Line Cook at two of the busiest restaurants in the area before going to UCLA,” he recalls. “Eventually my love of food led me to farming and cuisine develo
pment in Upstate New York.”
Kurt traces his family back to Renssellaerswyck. Documents of the Dutch West India Company in the Netherlands show an ancestor who came to our area on the Kalmar Nyckel in 1638 at age 17 to make wooden shoes. He was paid 40 guilders a year. 380 years later, farming in Columbia County was a homecoming of sorts for Henricks. “These days the footwear is much more comfortable.”
At his farm plot in Stuyvesant, NY, Henricks uses data loggers to measure weather and growth data. A background doing multivariate analysis, direct marketing, test design and brand development at Madison Avenue stalwart McCann Erickson led to developing software for MicroSoft and then to the launch of his own brands – one in nutrition software and the successful, eco-friendly LED maker Kick Lighting. Now he tests endless combinations of bean varieties, soils, composts and techniques to produce the best premium snow peas, haricot vert, and edamame. Using his chef skills and a volunteer team of super tasters, Kurt perfects regional and seasonal delights like Roasted Waltham Butternut Squash soup.
As 2016 roars to its end, Henricks is developing cuisine for a landmarked boutique hotel and preparing to launch a weekly, ready to eat food delivery business for small cities like Hudson and Athens which have no grocery stores.
“We are living in the golden age of food. I couldn’t be more excited to be able to pursue great cooking, farming and technology in a community of quality-focused entrepreneurs like Zak Pelaccio and Rachael Mamane. And to do so on the soil that Henry Hudson called “the finest for cultivation that ever I in my life set foot upon”…I’m living the dream.”